Robert Blake (admiral) - at Sea

At Sea

Blake was appointed General at Sea in 1649. Although it is commonly used, Blake's name was never prefixed by 'Admiral', a rank which was not used in the Parliamentarian navy; his actual rank of General at Sea combined the role of an Admiral and Commissioner of the Navy.

Blake is often referred to as the 'Father of the Royal Navy'. As well as being largely responsible for building the largest navy the country had then ever known, from a few tens of ships to well over a hundred, he was first to keep a fleet at sea over the winter. Blake also produced the Navy's first ever set of rules and regulations, The Laws of War and Ordinances of the Sea, the first version of which, containing 20 provisions, was passed by the House of Commons on 5 March 1649, with a printed version published in 1652 as The Laws of War and Ordinances of the Sea (Ordained and Established by the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England), listing 39 offences and their punishments — mostly death. The Instructions of the Admirals and generals of the Fleet for Councils of War, issued in 1653 by Blake, George Monck, John Disbrowe and William Penn, also instituted the first naval courts-martial in the English navy.

Blake developed new techniques to conduct blockades and landings; his Sailing instructions and Fighting Instructions, which were major overhauls of naval tactics written while recovering from injury in 1653, were the foundation of English Naval tactics in the Age of Sail. Blake's Fighting Instructions, issued by the Generals at Sea on 29 March 1653, are the first known instructions to be written in any language to adopt the use of the single line ahead battle formation Blake was also the first to repeatedly successfully attack despite fire from shore forts.

In 1656, the year before his death, Blake was appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.